White separatist fliers found in area

Some Northwest Michigan residents have reported finding a white separatist organization's fliers in their neighborhoods in recent days.

The fliers bear the National Alliance's name. Last week, this West Virginia-based group announced an international "Love Your Race" outreach campaign in conjunction with Valentine's Day.

One flier found locally displays the image of a Caucasian woman with the slogan "Love Your Race." Another alleges Jewish control over the media and entertainment, with those outlets used to promote "multicultural propaganda" and "Politically correct, anti-White" messages.

Shaun Walker, the National Alliance's chief operations officer, said the fliers were intended to promote racial pride and let recipients know "there are other white people out there concerned with what's going on."

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Petoskey Department of Public Safety Director Mike Vargo said his agency received a couple of reports that the fliers were found on the ground and in driveways around the city.

Since the distribution effort appears consistent with littering - a misdemeanor offense - Vargo said the matter remains under investigation.

However, "if we can't catch somebody dropping them on the ground, there is no crime," he noted.

Added Michigan State Police Trooper John Ferguson: "You have a fine line between freedom of speech and littering."

Ferguson said state police in Petoskey have received several recent reports of National Alliance fliers being found in outlying communities.

"When it happens, we investigate it," Ferguson said. "We make sure they're not targeting minorities, and they didn't in this case."

Some fliers were found around Traverse City in the past few days as well, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. Traverse City police chief Michael Warren said some neighborhoods in that area have been targeted for National Alliance literature over the past three to four years.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama organization with stated goals of promoting tolerance and racial equality, includes the National Alliance on its national listing of "hate" organizations in the neo-Nazi category.

"They are the largest and most important neo-Nazi group in the United States," law center spokesman Mark Potok said. "They're explicitly neo-Nazi.

"Their basic thing is the Jews."

In Northern Michigan, Ferguson said the group appears to be "a small outfit trying to get big." So far, he said the only public activity the group has engaged in locally is literature distribution.

"If you get this stuff and you don't like it … shred it, start a fire with it," he said. "This is pretty much what they're looking for: police contacts, press contacts.

"One of the things they want to get is a reaction."

If literature recipients have reason to feel threatened, Ferguson suggested contacting the local police or prosecutor's office.